University of Minnesota sophomore receiver Rashod Bateman was added to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List today by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc., which is the Florida-based creator and sponsor of the award.
The Biletnikoff Award annually recognizes the season's outstanding FBS receiver in college football. Any player, regardless of position, who catches a pass is eligible for the award. As such, the Biletnikoff Award recognizes college football's outstanding receiver, not merely college football's outstanding wide receiver.
Bateman is the Big Ten's leading receiver as he paces the conference with an average of 107.4 receiving yards per game. That total also ranks him ninth in all-purpose yards in the league.
Through five games Bateman been one of the premier receivers in the nation. He has 23 catches for 537 yards (tied for ninth in the country) and four touchdowns. He is tied for eighth in the nation with an average of 23.35 yards per catch and he has eight catches of 25 yards or longer this season.
Bateman has caught at least one pass in all 18 games he has played in, and he has five career 100-yard games (three this year). In 18 career games, he has 72 catches for 1,241 yards and 10 touchdowns. However, in his last 11 games, he has 43 catches for 946 yards (average 22.00 yards/catch) and seven touchdowns.
He crossed 1,000 career receiving yards at Purdue this year - which was his 17th career game - and became the second fastest Gopher to reach the milestone. The fastest Gopher to reach 1,000 career yards was Ryan Thelwell (15 games), who played in seven games in 1994 and had 406 yards and then crossed 1,000 yards eight games into the 1995 season. Bateman became the 26th Gopher to record 1,000 career receiving yards and ranks 20th in school history with 1,241 yards.
Bateman, who set freshman program records in 2018 in receptions (51) and yards (704), joins Minnesota senior Tyler Johnson on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List. Johnson, who has 28 catches for 350 yards and five touchdowns, was on the initial list announced on July 18.